Single-cell dissection of the human brain vasculature
Updated January 25, 2023Here, we perform the first single-cell characterization of the human cerebrovasculature using both ex vivo fresh tissue experimental enrichment and post mortem in silico sorting of human cortical tissue samples. We capture 16,681 cerebrovascular nuclei across 11 subtypes, including endothelial cells, mural cells, and three distinct subtypes of perivascular fibroblasts along the vasculature. We uncover human-specific expression patterns along the arteriovenous axis and determine previously uncharacterized cell type-specific markers. We use our newly discovered human-specific signatures to study changes in 3,945 cerebrovascular cells of Huntington’s disease patients, which reveal an activation of innate immune signaling in vascular and glial cell types and the concomitant reduction to proteins critical for maintenance of blood-brain barrier integrity. Finally, our study provides a comprehensive resource molecular atlas of the human cerebrovasculature to guide future biological and therapeutic studies. Overall design: Dissect cerebrovascular cell types in health and Huntington's disease
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Analysis Portals
NoneProject Label
scHumanBrainVasculatureSpecies
Sample Type
Anatomical Entity
Organ Part
Selected Cell Types
Disease Status (Specimen)
Disease Status (Donor)
Development Stage
Library Construction Method
Nucleic Acid Source
Paired End
false, trueAnalysis Protocol
analysis_protocol_1File Format
Cell Count Estimate
16.7kDonor Count
36